Judith Wright

Song
by Judith Wright

When cries aloud the bird of night

then I am quite on your breast.

When storms of darkness  quench the trees

I turn to you and am at rest:

and when the ancient terrors rise

and the feet halt and grow unsure,

for each of us the other's eyes

restore the day, the sickness cure

You, who with your insistent love

dissolved in me the evil stone

that was my shield against the world

and grew so close it seemed my own -

gave, easily as a tree might give

it's fruit, it's flower, it's wild grey dove -

the very life by which I live;

the power to answer love with love.

 
The Watcher

by Judith Wright

Lie quiet in the silence of my heart.

I watching thee am turned into a cloud;

I guarding thee am spread upon the air.

Lie quietly; be covered by my love.

I will be rain to fall upon your earth;

I will be shade to hold the sun from you.

I am the garden beyond the burning wind, 

I am the river among the blowing sand;

I am the song you hear before you sleep.

In being these, I lose myself in these.

I am the woman-statue of the fountain

out of whose metal breasts continually

starts a living water; I am a vase

shaped only for my hour of holding you.

This drought is but to turn me to a cloud.

This heat but casts my shadow cooler on you.

Turn to my breast your fever, and be still.